Grace the Cat is not at all like me, as she is forever bent on mischief. But because I am an older and wiser cat, she looks to me for counsel, and so I have allowed Grace to prevail upon me to set down the story of my life as a housecat in the human world. . . . As the irrepressible Foudini M. Cat regales us with his adventures, an exciting story unfolds. After his valiant but frail mother leaves him in search for food and never returns, the starving kitten is taken, hissing and spitting, to a frightening room with cages and men in white coats. Facing the specter of eternal sleep, the homeless cat is adopted by a woman he later calls "Warm." ("All cats like to make up strange names for things.") From here Foudini enchants us with splendid tales of his unlikely but ultimately poignant friendship with Sam the Dog; their trips between Cold House in the city and Mouse House in the country; his mystical experiences with famous felines of the past; his near-death in a raging river that leads to a profound act of sacrifice; and his introduction to a silly young thing named Grace, which evolves into something completely unexpected. "From the Trade Paperback edition.

When a spaceship carrying Neil Armstrong accidentally time travels to 1869 Texas, cowboy Nat Love decides to trade in his horse for a trip to the Moon, and stepsiblings Abby and Doc must untwist history and get everyone back to their own time.

At forty, the writer Nathan Zuckerman comes down with a mysterious affliction--pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso, and taking possession of his spirit. Zuckerman, whose work was his life, is unable to write a line. Now his work is trekking from one doctor to another, but none can find a cause for the pain and nobody can assuage it. Zuckerman himself wonders if the pain can have been caused by his own books. And while he is wondering, his dependence on painkillers grows into an addiction to vodka, marijuana, and Percodan. The Anatomy Lesson is a great comedy of illness written in what the English critic Hermione Lee has described as "a manner at once...brash and thoughtful... lyrical and wry, which projects through comic expostulations and confessions...a knowing, humane authority." The third volume of the trilogy and epilogue Zuckerman Bound, The Anatomy Lesson provides some of the funniest scenes in all of Roth's fiction as well as some of the fiercest. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Four-time Edgar Award-winning author Lawrence Block's definitive essay collection on the art of writing fiction For ten years, crime novelist Lawrence Block funneled his wealth of writing expertise into a monthly column for Writer's Digest. Collected here for the first time are those pieces illuminating the tricks of the authorial trade, from creating vibrant characters and generating seamless plots, to conquering writer's block and experimenting with self-publishing. Filled with wit and insight, The Liar's Bible is a must-read for experts, amateurs, and anyone interested in learning to craft great fiction from one of the field's modern masters. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

The stories collected here span the years 1988 to 2002, during which time LeslA(c)a Newman wrote six volumes of short stories: "A Letter to Harvey Milk, Secrets, Every Woman's Dream, Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear, Girls Will Be Girls "and "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not." In Newman's prize-winning story "A Letter to Harvey Milk," Harry Weinberg, a 77-year-old Holocaust survivor, takes a writing class in which he unearths memories that force both him and his writing teacher, a Jewish lesbian, to see their lives differently. "Right Off the Bat" is a monologue by a 12-year old girl whose lesbian mothers have been gay-bashed. "Eggs McMenopause" tells the story of how a sleep-deprived butch finds a unique solution to the trials and tribulations of menopause. In "The Babka Sisters," a women's studies student interviews a nursing home resident and hears a tale the woman has never told anyone: the story of the girl she fell in love with in high school. And in "Mothers of Invention," a couple tests their relationship when one woman decides she wants to have a baby and the other woman does not. Newman's stories covers a dazzling array of themes pertaining to contem-porary lesbian life, including long-term relationships, one-night stands, family-of-origin angst, motherhood, friendships with gay men, AIDS, breast cancer, aging, loss and bisexuality. Many of these stories explore Jewish identity as well. Each story in this collection is told with Newman's trademark wit, honesty, talent and compassion. LeslA(c)a Newman's literary awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the -Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Six of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists. A native New Yorker, she currently lives in western Massachusetts.

"Jacob Appel's acrobatic imagination is always a thrill to watch in action. These stories fly through the air and grip your heart. Appel's naturalness as a storyteller makes The Liars' Asylum a total pleasure, a collection in a league of its own. Each story-- there are no duds here-- engages and entertains. Each is beautifully measured and composed, populated by characters I worried for, crushed on, and hoped with."-- Kelly Luce "In this excellent collection of stories, Jacob Appel mines everything for what it is and what it might be: the ordinary, the bizarre, the poignant. The voice, regardless of the narrator, is always crisp and exuberant, in ways subtle and fresh. I could say he is a writer to watch, but actually he is publishing well and frequently. He's a writer to read."-- Fred Leebron "While the plants and ponds might be aggressively artificial in Jacob Appel's newest collection of stories, there's not a single false note when it comes to Appel's characters and their intertwined lives. Romance blooms despite vast differences in ages and circumstance, and near connections plunge into a unique melancholy optimism that will propel readers from one story to the next."-- Suzanne Greenberg "Jacob M. Appel's brilliant new story collection manages to pull off the rarest of literary feats-- delivering eight fantastic stories, each as entertaining as it is philosophically rich. A book of laugh-out-loud wit braided with intellectual fearlessness, The Liars' Asylum offers delights for the mind on every page. Best of all, these irreverent, lovingly subversive stories upend dusty assumptions about what it means to be alive and allow the reader to experience her own existence with a fresh eye. A stunning book that will remain with you long after the last page is turned."-- Alethea Black "Across eight compelling stories, Jacob Appel offers us glimpses into the lives of people keeping secrets, broaching taboos, and testing the limits of their relationships. From a former teacher's suicide to an epidemic of storms that forces those caught in them to tell the truth, The Liars' Asylum beautifully and artfully exposes the mysteries and longings of the human heart."-- Anne Valente "Jacob M. Appel new collection, The Liars' Asylum , confirms his status as one of our most skillful, and appealing, practitioners of short fiction. Indeed, Appel is one of those blessed and nimble writers who, like Chekhov, can find a story anywhere. On ample display are his trademark first-person narrators (often young women), his deliciously light touch, his mastery of the 'reversal of fortune' moment. His new cast of characters includes a girl tasked with ensuring her aunt a 'beau, ' an immigrant Finn who teaches us the meaning of endurance, and a ER psychiatrist dealing with a mass hysteria of truth-telling. Appel's fiction is a brilliant and reassuring example of Horace's maxim: The role of the artist is to inform and delight."-- Catherine Browder

Young Sharur is the scion of a merchant family in the city of Gibil, loyal - he thinks - to his city's god, Engibil, and to that god's human deputies. But like his fellows in Gibil, Sharur is less interested in gods than in progress in invention and trade. Then, on a routine trading expedition, he learns that the gods of the other cities, resentful of Engibil's relaxed attitude toward his people, are uniting to punish Gibil and squelch the growing power of human creativity, epitomized by the city-state's easygoing ways. Now only Sharur's wits can save the city from the aroused divinities...and he's going to need all the inventiveness he can muster.

Beloved private eye Benny Cooperman is ready to hang up his gumshoes after an attack leaves him with lingering memory problems. But then an old chum goes missing Hot on the trail of Jake Grange, a schoolfriend who ran a scuba diving business, Benny heads to Murinam, an exotic place with the feel and look of a former French colony. There, Benny encounters a bon-vivant priest, a pretty marine biologist, and an eccentric Englishman in search of kosher food. Of course any of these charming locals could be responsible for Jake's disappearance. But when dead bodies start to appear under the sunny tropical skies, Benny knows he must be getting somewhere. With its sure-footed plot and trademark wry humour, "East of Suez" proves to be one of Benny Cooperman's most memorable cases."

In a parallel-world 21st-century San Francisco where the Kaiser's Germany won World War One and went on to dominate the world, Paul Gomes and his father Lawrence are secret agents for our timeline, posing as traders from a foreign land. They run a storefront shop called Curious Notions, selling what is in our world routine consumer technology-record players, radios, cassette decks--all of which is better than anything in this world, but only by a bit. Their real job is to obtain raw materials for our timeline. Just as importantly, they must guard the secret of Crosstime Traffic--for of the millions of parallel timelines, this is one of the few advanced enough to use that secret against us. Now, however, the German occupation police are harrassing them. They want to know where they're getting their mysterious goods. Under pressure, Paul and Lawrence hint that their supplies comes from San Francisco's Chinese...setting in motion a chain of intrigues that will put the entire enterprise of Crosstime Traffic at deadly risk.

Daisy Greenbaum, married to a Wall Street financier, is willing to eliminate anyone who threatens to ruin their Upper East Side Manhattan lifestyle, including her husband's boss and mistress.

Worldly, Jewish, at one time a standout on his legendary Greenwich Village basketball team, an American classical guitar teacher seeks a new life in Portugal after the death of so many friends. But what he calls the viral eclipse over sexuality pursues him even there, when Antonio, his most talented and beloved student, tests HIV-positive and threatens to give up on life at just twenty-four. Desperate to show the young man that he still has a future, 'the Professor' arranges a car trip across Spain to Paris, hoping to be able to convince a leading virtuoso there to begin preparing his protege for a concert career. Antonio's estranged father, Miguel, a stonemason by trade, insists on coming along with them, and en route the three fall into a triangle of adventure, personal disclosure, violence, and at last a strange redemption.

Nebula and Locus award finalist Lemberg returns us to the Birdverse with this powerful collection of poems and stories. "In the Birdverse, a magic loosely based in geometry is a source of craftsmanship, art, protection and healing. Multiple cultures and countries engage in trade relationships and political alliances. Cultures make use of magic according to their own traditions and rules, and worship the deity Bird, in whichever feathered from Bird takes. And within these countries and cultures, individuals hurt and are hurt, heal and are healed." - Bookslut

You will not find "'Repent, Harlequin ' Said the Ticktockman" in this book. Nor will you find "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," "A Boy and His Dog," or "The Deathbird," or any of Harlan Ellison's myriad masterpieces. What will you find herein? The front cover might give you a nasty clue: stories of crime and amorality, of sex and violence. What the cover might not have conveyed was that the award-winning tales enumerated above were forged in an imagination stoked for the preceding decade by the need to trade tales to the pulps and slick men's magazine to make the rent ($7 a week). You hold in your hands the work of a writer painfully crawling forward, tale by tale, honing his craft in an industry where every word counted...of course, you knew all that; you got it from the title. AGAIN, HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD kicks off with "Typewriters & Pipe Lighters," a collection of anecdotes from Ellison recalling the writing of these stories, which span his first full year as a professional writer (1956) to 1968, when he still dashed off the occasional thriller while making his name with the iconic fantasies listed above. A further essay-"Naked Deranged Psycho Thrill-Demon Or, Bitch-Slut Gun-Crazy Homicidal Rat" (1996)-discusses pulp editor W.W. Scott's propensity for re-titling Ellison's works for publication in such publications as Guilty and Trapped. Most of the stories are straight-forward thrillers never-before collected in an Ellison anthology: "Her Name Was Death" (1957), "Thirty Miles to Death Junction" (1957), "The Teaser with a Knife" (1967), "Don't Mind the Maid" (1957), "The Girl in the Red Room" (1964), "Hunchback" (1957), "Goodbye, Eadie" (1956), "The Clean Break" (1956), "Boss of the Big House"(1957), "Drive a Girl to Kill" (1957), "Hell's Holocaust" (1957), "Willie Just Won't Kick Off" (1968), "Mad Dog " (written with Henry Slesar, 1957), "The Women in the House" (1957), "Taxi Dancer"(1967). "The Music of Our Affair"(1963) features the author experimenting with style, to cacophonous effect. "Find One Cuckaboo" (1960) is a never-before reprinted novelette originally included in the paperback anthology THE SAINT MYSTERY LIBRARY, No. 11. "Clobber Me, Moogoo " (1956) and "McManus's Mental Mistress" (1968) exhibit a fantasy-tinged approach to stories of sex. "Only Death Can Stop It" (1960) compelled Harlan to add a disclaimer to the table of the contents. "The Final Push" (1957) is one of the author's three Westerns. While "Saddle Tramp" (collected in HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD) was more tramp than saddle, this story has more in common with "The End of the Time of Leinard" in its evocation of a genre Ellison adores. "Night on the Mug Beat" is a never-before published cop story, appearing herein for the first time. The main body of the collection closes with "The Steep Road to the Gutter" (1965), an overlooked masterpiece of early Ellisonia that the editor is overjoyed to expose to a wider audience. But wait, there's more In preparing AGAIN, HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD for publication, the editor stumbled across a file headed A WOMAN NAMED MIDNIGHT. After confirming that "A Girl Named Poison" (found in the author's 2013 collection PULLING A TRAIN) hadn't changed her name upon reaching maturity, the editor brought the forty-page typescript for an unfinished novel-credited to "Ellis Daye" on the first page, and written while Ellison lived in the treehouse on Bushrod Lane-to its author. Harlan read the story but had no recollection of writing it, nor why it had never been completed and published, but nevertheless gave his blessing for it to make its debut herein.

Levi writes on a variety of subjects, always of interest, always lucid, and always literary

When a young man pays an unconscionable amount of money for a book of poetry, he suspects he may have been cheated and turns to a law clerk named Bland to play detective. A series of events lead the reader through forgery claims, black market traders, robbery, intrigue and murder.

The five ace intelligence agents gathered at the secret St. John Institute are the best of the best. The best at tradecraft. The best at weapons handling. The best at analyzing a volatile situation, getting in, getting what they came for, and getting out alive. They are all dead-their old identities perished when they were kidnapped by the secret masters of the institute. Now they have new names and new personal histories. More important, each has received a life-saving organ transplant. And something else-twice a day, each is given an injection of a mysterious golden serum. They are no longer ordinary human beings. Their minds are linked in a bond that grows stronger with time. Their leader is known as Denny Monroe. He doesn't trust anyone associated with the St. John Institute-especially not Charlotte Willson, who oversees the transplant project. Since the five agents are already dead, Monroe figures they're seen as expendable-and he's going to do whatever is necessary to protect himself and his four colleagues. Half a world away, a Russian general, desperate to escape his country's failing economy and crumbling military, sells five small atomic bombs-suitcase nukes-to an international terrorist. He's paid a staggering sum that allows him to ignore the death and destruction the bombs will inevitably cause. But General Temkov can't quite sleep peacefully at night. His best spy has vanished in the U.S. under suspicious circumstances. Kidnapping an Americana diplomat in Moscow, Temkov pressures the CIA to reveal the whereabouts of his missing man. But the CIA knows nothing. The first suitcase nuke destroys a small African city-a test of the equipment. Three more bombs are on their way to London, Jerusalem, and Washington, D.C. The CIA is convinced that the missing spy and the missing bombs are somehow connected. But to find out exactly what is going on, they need Denny Monroe and his band of extraordinary telepaths. Monroe has needs of his own-to determine the identity of the mysterious "Kelly's People." Are they his team, or does the St. John Institute guard even more secrets?

MACKINLAY KANTOR Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Andersonville VALLEY FORGE Poignant, tender, and powerful, VALLEY FORGE brings into sharp new focus one of the most tensely dramatic episodes of the American Revolution. With warmth and wit, compassion and sensitivity, MacKinlay Kantor evokes the flavor, pulse and texture of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, transporting the reader into the houses and workshops, kitchens and stables, parlors and bedrooms of ordinary citizens. Here are not only the soldiers of Valley Forge, but the panorama of the Revolution itself. George Washington, lamenting the remoteness and lack of valor in the Congress, anticipating new battle; the sprightly, good-humored Martha, always loyal and loving to a fault; the Marquis de Lafayette, whose poise and dignity belied his youth; Baron von Steuben whose halting English made the soldiers laugh, but whose fierce devotion won their respect. And the multitude-young Mum, a sixteen-year-old deserter savagely trampled by Tarleton's Raiders; Malachi Lennan whose gift of a horse gained him entry into Mad Anthony Wayne's Drovers; Billy, the turncoat, wailing for his mother as he was dragged to the gallows. Sons of farmers and tradesmen, trappers and teachers-some too young to fight, and some too old-surge through these pages, giving life, breath, scope and humanity to the American Revolution and the winter at Valley Forge. MacKINLAY KANTOR was born in Webster City, Iowa in 1904. He began to write seriously at sixteen, became a newspaper reporter at seventeen, and an author at twenty-three. Since his first-published novel in 1928, more than forty books have appeared in print, including verse, short stories, novellas, histories, and books for children. His best-selling, and Pulitzer Prize- winning Andersonville was published in 1955. MacKinlay Kantor's other than book accomplishments range from Hollywood screenwriting to police patrolling (N. Y. P. D.), to combat experience (RAF and U.SAF) in two wars. VALLEY FORGE is grandly conceived, but the quality is equal to the concept. The climate of the war, its taste and smell and the harsh texture of its life, are evoked with mystery. Neither souped-up nor toned-down under fashionable pressures, this is an extraordinarily honest and human book. I am greatly impressed.-MARY RENAULT

In a parallel-world 21st-century San Francisco where the Kaiser's Germany won World War One and went on to dominate the world, Paul Gomes and his father Lawrence are secret agents for our timeline, posing as traders from a foreign land. They run a storefront shop called Curious Notions, selling what is in our world routine consumer technology-record players, radios, cassette decks--all of which is better than anything in this world, but only by a bit. Their real job is to obtain raw materials for our timeline. Just as importantly, they must guard the secret of Crosstime Traffic--for of the millions of parallel timelines, this is one of the few advanced enough to use that secret against us. Now, however, the German occupation police are harassing them. They want to know where they're getting their mysterious goods. Under pressure, Paul and Lawrence hint that their supplies comes from San Francisco's Chinese...setting in motion a chain of intrigues that will put the entire enterprise of Crosstime Traffic at deadly risk. Curious Notions is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic series.

Facing her romantic prospects with skepticism after two disappointing relationships, successful DJ Berry Lambert, who believes bad things occur in threes, expects a rapid dissolution to her next love affair and is surprised by her attraction to an outspoken, commitment-minded rival.

Hailed as one of the "top ten women who write superior crime fiction" by the Los Angeles Times, award-winning author Rochelle Krich adds another superb novel of mystery, murder, and icy suspense to her outstanding collection. Dead Air stars Krich's popular LAPD Homicide Detective Jessie Drake in a case that begins with a surprise visit from an old friend and quickly turns into a heart-wrenching, life and death drama that rocks the city. Jessie is astonished when her closest high school confidant, who hasn't been in touch for almost two years, shows up at her door with an alarming tale of being harassed by an unseen stalker. Jessie's friend is now "Dr. Renee," a popular radio talk show therapist who doles out quick-fix no-nonsense advice to troubled callers on everything from lackluster marriages to steamy illicit affairs. Now Renee is desperately frightened and convinced Jessie can help her. Skeptical, and with little to go on, Jessie agrees to investigate---just as a favor. But Jessie's interest quickly turns professional when Renee's six-year-old daughter Molly is kidnapped---and the child's nanny murdered. Renee and her estranged husband Barry, already in a fierce battle over custody, trade angry charges of blame and suspicion while Jessie tracks a bizarre series of events that began a few weeks earlier when a battered wife phoned Dr. Renee for help. Now the woman's crazed husband blames the radio therapist for handing out advice that has ruined his marriage. And---on the air for all to hear---he threatens revenge. With a child as a pawn, a killer plays a chilling game where he holds all the cards---and he's chosen Jessie to be LAPD's top player. As the hours tick by, he uses the radio talk show to up the ante, sending shocking waves of horror and disbelief through the city and terror into the hearts of loved ones. And under the hot glare of media scrutiny, Jessie works feverishly against the clock to beat him at his own game.Hailed as one of the "top ten women who write superior crime fiction" by the Los Angeles Times, award-winning author Rochelle Krich adds another superb novel of mystery, murder, and icy suspense to her outstanding collection. DEAD AIR stars Krich's popular LAPD Homicide Detective Jessie Drake in a case that begins with a surprise visit from an old friend and quickly turns into a heart-wrenching, life and death drama that rocks the city. Jessie is astonished when her closest high school confidant, who hasn't been in touch for almost two years, shows up at her door with an alarming tale of being harassed by an unseen stalker. Jessie's friend is now "Dr. Renee," a popular radio talk show therapist who doles out quick-fix no-nonsense advice to troubled callers on everything from lackluster marriages to steamy illicit affairs. Now Renee is desperately frightened and convinced Jessie can help her. Skeptical, and with little to go on, Jessie agrees to investigate---just as a favor. But Jessie's interest quickly turns professional when Renee's six-year-old daughter Molly is kidnapped---and the child's nanny murdered. Renee and her estranged husband Barry, already in a fierce battle over custody, trade angry charges of blame and suspicion while Jessie tracks a bizarre series of events that began a few weeks earlier when a battered wife phoned Dr. Renee for help. Now the woman's crazed husband blames the radio therapist for handing out advice that has ruined his marriage. And---on the air for all to hear---he threatens revenge. With a child as a pawn, a killer plays a chilling game where he holds all the cards---and he's chosen Jessie to be LAPD's top player. As the hours tick by, he uses the radio talk show to up the ante, sending shocking waves of horror and disbelief through the city and terror into the hearts of loved ones. And under the hot glare of media scrutiny, Jessie works feverishly against the clock to beat him at his own game. BHailed as one of the "top ten women who write superior crime fiction" by the Los Angeles Times, award-winning author Rochelle Krich adds another superb novel of mystery, murder, and icy suspense to her outstanding collection. DEAD AIR stars Krich's popular LAPD Homicide Detective Jessie Drake in a case that begins with a surprise visit from an old friend and quickly turns into a heart-wrenching, life and death drama that rocks the city. Jessie is astonished when her closest high school confidant, who hasn't been in touch for almost two years, shows up at her door with an alarming tale of being harassed by an unseen stalker. Jessie's friend is now "Dr. Renee," a popular radio talk show therapist who doles out quick-fix no-nonsense advice to troubled callers on everything from lackluster marriages to steamy illicit affairs. Now Renee is desperately frightened and convinced Jessie can help her. Skeptical, and with little to go on, Jessie agrees to investigate---just as a favor. But Jessie's interest quickly turns professional when Renee's six-year-old daughter Molly is kidnapped---and the child's nanny murdered. Renee and her estranged husband Barry, already in a fierce battle over custody, trade angry charges of blame and suspicion while Jessie tracks a bizarre series of events that began a few weeks earlier when a battered wife phoned Dr. Renee for help. Now the woman's crazed husband blames the radio therapist for handing out advice that has ruined his marriage. And---on the air for all to hear---he threatens revenge. With a child as a pawn, a killer plays a chilling game where he holds all the cards---and he's chosen Jessie to be LAPD's top player. As the hours tick by, he uses the radio talk show to up the ante, sending shocking waves of horror and disbelief through the city and terror into the hearts of loved ones. And under the hot glare of media scrutiny, Jessie works feverishly against the clock to beat him at his own game. B